Speckles the Dog by Catherine Payne - HTML preview

Speckles The Dog By
Catherine Payne

Speckles the dog loved life on the farm. He listened for the rooster, his morning alarm.

 

Today when Speckles went out to play, He thought it would be fun to hide in the hay.

 

He jumped and he thumped and he whirled around, When all of a sudden he heard a strange sound.

 

Behind the barn door, what could it be? Speckles was curious so he went to go see.

 

He peeked around the door and to his surprise, Looking back at him was a pair of small eyes.

 

That strange sound was made by a mouse.

 

Speckles wondered what he was doing in this great big barn house.

 

“Hi, my name is Speckles” the little dog said.

 

In response the mouse squeaked, “Nice tomeet you.I’m Fred.”

 

The mouse wasn’t scared. He didn’t run and hide. Instead he hopped on Speckles’ back to go for a ride.

 

Speckles yelled up to Fred, “You better hold on tight.” And soon they took off like an airplane in flight.

 

Speckles ran to the field and into the flowers. Sometimes he would go there and lay around for hours.

 

They watched the birds high up in the sky.

 

Speckles thought, “wow they go fast as they fly on by.”

 

Oh no, a sprinkle of rain and then came the thunder. Quickly they searched for a tree to sit under.

 

Whew, they made it before the rain came pouring down. Lucky for them they were still on dry ground.

 

Fred shimmied up the trunk and Speckles tried to follow after, But he fell to the ground and they both filled with laughter.

 

Fred giggled then said, “Speckles try one more time.” So Speckles got up and began to climb.

Once again he tried and then fell to his knees.
Then he said to Fred, “I guess dogs aren’t meant to climb trees.” Then Speckles looked sad and turned away with a frown. So from up in the tree Fred quickly hopped down.

Fred told Speckles, Don’t be sad that you can’t climb too Because there aremany things that are special about you.”

 

“Unlike a mouse, you can run fetch a stick. And I bet that you can even do tricks.”

 

“You can sit, beg, roll over, and shake. Wow, what a lot of talent that must take.”

 

Speckles felt better now with Fred down by his side. Then Fred squealed, “There’s the sun! How about anotherride?”

 

He hopped on Speckles’ back and they ran from the tree. Then Fred yelled up to the sky, “Here we go, yippee.”

 

They darted back through the field and were now near the house. What an adventure for the brave little mouse.

 

But what was that they saw way over there? It was a big yellow cat on an old rocking chair.

 

The cat made Fred nervous, but Speckles told him it was alright. It wasa friendly cat. He wouldn’t put up a fight.

 

Speckles ran up the porch steps and Fred crept behind him real slow So that he could get a better look at the cat they called Joe.

 

Before Fred knew it, the cat leapt into the air

 

With the spine of his back covered in short spikes of hair.

 

Speckles cried, “Wait Joe, that mouse is my friend.” So he stopped, looked at Speckles, then grinned.

 

Joe laughed and said, “You made friends with a mouse? Don’t you know I’m supposed to chase them away from thehouse!”

 

So Fred and Speckles went on their way

 

Back to the barn where they had met earlier that day.

 

When they got back to the barn they went on inside Then Fred thanked Speckles for the ride.

 

Speckles told Fred to have a good night. Then the mouse turned and ran out of sight.

The sun was going down. The day was coming to an end. Speckles was so happy to have made a new friend. Speckles was sleepy now. Oh what a day. And to think it all started in a pile of hay.